Madagascar: Operation Penguin is a platformer that focuses on the Penguins from the movie. This run beats the game about 5 minutes faster than the RTA record. There is a surprising amount of optimization to do in this game, but most of it is pretty standard for TASing. The biggest optimization not present in the RTA run is jumping over people. The male people can be jumped over with a frame perfect jump. Female people cannot be jumped over for some reason. This saves time not only in the zoo but on the boat as well.
This run incorporates the WIP by FriedPorkchop, and a lot of the optimization details come from there, such as ducking into stage endings which saves 4 frames each time.
This run is console verified, as in the temp encode.

nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: Replacing movie with an improved version of 3449 frames.
nymx: Well, this was a neat little game to watch. My comparison with the WR showed multiple places that shine over human effort. So, in the thread, there were mentions of possible improvements...which Alyosha was able to turn around quickly. Even after that, some questions still exited; however, my assessment is that nothing looks out of place as you exploit so many mechanics to keep moving quickly and without apparent waste. Great job!
Accepting.

despoa: Processing...


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15576
Location: 127.0.0.1
Player (123)
Joined: 2/16/2024
Posts: 39
Nice run. I’m not particularly familiar with this game but one thing I can say is that you can fully skip dialogue boxes with the start button. That’s the only improvement I can think of however, the rest of the run seems clean.
Alyosha
He/Him
Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (3821)
Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2829
Location: US
SuperSqank wrote:
Nice run. I’m not particularly familiar with this game but one thing I can say is that you can fully skip dialogue boxes with the start button. That’s the only improvement I can think of however, the rest of the run seems clean.
I didn't even think to try that, thanks for the tip! I'll work on implementing it.
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4036
Have you also read the forum thread? FriiedPorkchop discovered some glitches involving tobogganing mode that help preserve speed and can even clip through things, skipping part of Arctic Pen 3. The Giraffe Pen demo encode used the mGBA core, while the BK2 from the later post used VBA-Next in BizHawk 1.11.1, and I couldn't get it to sync in BizHawk 2.3.2 so it might require an older version. I did format and paste its input into a GBMV but only the very first level (Mr. Chew) syncs, the rest may need to be resynced for every room if you want to directly compare strategies.
Alyosha
He/Him
Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (3821)
Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2829
Location: US
CoolKirby wrote:
Have you also read the forum thread? FriiedPorkchop discovered some glitches involving tobogganing mode that help preserve speed and can even clip through things, skipping part of Arctic Pen 3. The Giraffe Pen demo encode used the mGBA core, while the BK2 from the later post used VBA-Next in BizHawk 1.11.1, and I couldn't get it to sync in BizHawk 2.3.2 so it might require an older version. I did format and paste its input into a GBMV but only the very first level (Mr. Chew) syncs, the rest may need to be resynced for every room if you want to directly compare strategies.
Nope I definitely did not read the thread, rookie mistake me! I'll try to implement this stuff in the next couple weeks.
Alyosha
He/Him
Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (3821)
Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2829
Location: US
Incorporating FriedPorkchop's improvements was easier than expected. I was able to resync the most recent WIP and made a couple minor improvements as well. I also improved the latter half of the run mainly by incorporating the new tech and by realizing the sailors can be attacked normally, they don't all need to be darted. Please replace the movie file with this one: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638534902598449672 it is console verified as well, I will update the temp encode.
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4036
That was fast! A lot of levels like Giraffe Pen look even more TAS-like now. I like the trick in Arctic Pen 1 to destroy the third fan in one frame by using the fish while falling off a ledge. When you have time, it'd be nice to see tricks you used like the double jump documented in the submission text or a Game Resources page, too. In Zebra Pen 1, did you skip a dance at the end? It sounds like Private's voice starts to play, then cuts out and the BGM restarts in the second room. Something similar happens at the end of Monkey Cages 2 with Alex. At 1:27, you toboggan across part of that pond, but on revisits at 10:37 and 16:37 you don't. Could it also be faster to toboggan across at 13:50, 17:20, etc? Otherwise, looks good and it's great you shaved off almost a full minute.
Alyosha
He/Him
Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (3821)
Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2829
Location: US
CoolKirby wrote:
In Zebra Pen 1, did you skip a dance at the end? It sounds like Private's voice starts to play, then cuts out and the BGM restarts in the second room. Something similar happens at the end of Monkey Cages 2 with Alex. At 1:27, you toboggan across part of that pond, but on revisits at 10:37 and 16:37 you don't. Could it also be faster to toboggan across at 13:50, 17:20, etc? Otherwise, looks good and it's great you shaved off almost a full minute.
That is just the notification for collecting 100 medals and earning an extra fish in your health bar. I don't think that saves time, as far as I can tell it's the same speed as jumping.
Player (123)
Joined: 2/16/2024
Posts: 39
Great improvement. Saving around a minute throughout the run is really neat to see.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15576
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [6005] GBA Madagascar: Operation Penguin by Alyosha & FriiedPorkchop in 31:43.04
Alyosha
He/Him
Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (3821)
Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2829
Location: US
This run is still on the workbench despite being published, some kind of glitch?